UK

The UK has announced it will be increasing its previously announced military aid package to Ukraine to include 10,000 additional drones at a total cost of £325 million ($416 million) – support coming at a critical time as Kyiv’s munitions run low amid blocked US assistance.

UK drone services and air taxi infrastructure specialist Skyports says it has been commissioned to create “the UK’s first vertiport testbed” at a specialized facility about 65 miles northwest of London.

The UK military has always been gung-ho on the potentials of drone technologies, but their performance in Ukraine has solidified British convictions that UAVs have become essential to future conflict strategies – a view it is backing up with a 4.5 billion pound ($5.7 billion) investment.

Emerging electric vertical takeoff and landing (eVTOL) aircraft used in air taxi transportation will generate billions of dollars in new activity – a major new boost to national economies that governments don’t want foreign companies to dominate. The most recent example of that defensive reflex of local aerial markets comes from the UK, where national hero Vertical Aerospace has received an additional $10.5 million in state support.

The UK’s  Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) regulatory body has taken an important step toward enabling UAV activities to scale, with its proposals to loosen rules for beyond visual line of sight drone operation (BVLOS).

As extreme-right Republican legislators continue blocking passage of additional US aid to Ukraine, Canada has stepped up alongside European countries and the UK to promise quick delivery of thousands of drones to Kyiv for its nearly two-year defensive battle against Russia’s invasion.

A barrage of aerial and ground infrastructure trials have been held this month by the UK’s Open Skies Cornwall consortium, which is seeking to organize airspace into which regular UAV activities – including ship-to-shore operations – can be integrated above and around Falmouth Harbour, and enable future ship-to-shore and other operations. 

London-based electric vertical takeoff and landing (eVTOL) aircraft company Vertical Aerospace is getting a critical extension of its cash runway to develop its air taxi, with a $50 million infusion from company founder and CEO Stephen Fitzpatrick.

A cutting-edge UK laser defense asset has been successfully tested against simulated enemy aircraft – which, in a reflection of the swiftly changing nature of conflict these days, cast drones in the supporting role of the doomed invader.

Skyports Drone Services has announced what it called breakthrough aerial testing of remote water quality monitoring, in partnership with fellow UK tech startup Makutu and the Northumbrian Water utility.

Leading global drone manufacturer DJI is hitting the ground running in 2024 with a major update of its GEO geofencing application for users in the European Union and UK – part of its ongoing responses to changes the new year is bringing.

Global instant logistics leader Zipline will initiate its medical drone delivery activity in the UK by assuming a central role in an aerial network planning to serve over 30 hospitals and other healthcare facilities operated by northwest England’s regional unit of the National Health System (NHS).

What at its launch was hailed as the UK’s first permanent UAV postal delivery operation has been temporarily suspended after a Skyports Drone Services craft encountered a technical glitch, leading an observer to abort a routine mission linking Orkney Islands destinations for the Royal Mail.

Innovative UK drone startup Inteliports says it successfully completed a trial run of its GO UAV delivery concept, which is designed to group all functions of the takeoff, landing, flight navigation, and payload handling process into compact, automated modules that fit neatly into urban landscapes.

Scotland’s bid to launch what it says will be the world’s first nation-wide medical drone delivery network has taken another step forward with the completion of its first live trial flight near Glasgow.

Authorities in the UK are seeking to battle what they decry as increasing drone deliveries of contraband to prisons in a manner that hasn’t been terribly effective in other countries before: passing new legislation to broaden bans on what’s already illegal activity, rather than investing in the specialized detection and mitigation tech required to detect and neutralize invasive UAVs en route to jails.

The UK UAV company Skyports Drone Services didn’t wait long to put its decision to acquire Pyka heavy-lift cargo craft into action, announcing this week it had successfully completed a trial of their aerial applications during a Royal Navy tech demonstration event.

Police in the popular UK coastal city of Brighton have begun flying late-night drone patrols of the beachfront in an effort to halt a recent series of sexual assaults in the area.

It’s no secret that UK police have been energetic and innovative adopters of drone technology in public service, law enforcement, and first responder activity, but a recent survey suggests those forces need to do a better job in assuring security of their UAVs and the data they collect.

Over its some 700-year-history, the UK’s annual Goose Fair in Nottingham has adapted to and embraced technological innovation as part of its festivities, but this year is drawing a line – in the sky – to exclude drones.

As an additional reminder that you can’t make everyone happy – especially in this divided, frequently infuriated world – a UK medical drone delivery project has come under considerable fire for its efforts to seek prolonged flight restrictions across an expanse of airspace that locals say would effectively shut down local air traffic.